King Sombra
King Sombra is a unicorn and the main antagonist of the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic two-parter The Crystal Empire, in which he is portrayed as the tyrant ruler of the Crystal Empire.__TOC__ Depictions in fan labor With what few lines and little time on-screen he had during his brief role and his fate is left undecided in the show, in most fan fiction Sombra is either dead or survives his ordeal, in which case he makes a surprising return to exact his revenge on the Mane Six, Celestia, and Luna, and tries to take over the Crystal Empire and ultimately Equestria. Very little fan labor portrays him as a hero or having redeeming qualities. Another prominent theme revolves around the implications of the use of dark magic (and nefarious means in general), with Sombra as its prominent user and advocate. One depiction is Sombra's past, showing how he ended up as a dark wizard. Another is him interacting with Twilight, trying to seduce her into becoming his disciple and/or showing her that they are not so different after all. Reception and criticism Sombra was not as well received as most other Friendship is Magic villains, as many viewers were disappointed that very little was revealed about his character and that he didn't appear or speak as often as other villains. This has however been disputed by saying it adds to how malevolent and intimidating he is, and that it highlights his resemblance to Sauron of the Lord of the Rings series. King Sombra's character design has also been criticized by some fans, many calling it uninspired. Memes *Before the actual episode, King Sombra's appearance has been likened by fans to bad original characters (OCs). Due to this, he was occasionally called "Lord Donut Steel" (a play on "Do not steal", a joke sentence referring to badly made original characters). *After his name was revealed, many fans have taken to calling him "King Sombrero". *King Sombra's castle has not one but two unbelievably long sets of stairs on the way to the Crystal Heart. A common joke about him is that he is oddly obsessed with stairs. There is a joke that his cutie mark is a staircase. *King Sombra has become memetically associated with the Nickelodeon/Mattel toy Gak due to commercials for said toy being aired frequently during the live airing of the Season 3 premiere. Sub-branches of this joke include things like "Gak got more screentime than King Sombra" and even "King Sombra is actually made of Gak". *As the first villain to seemingly die (this is still debated amongst the fandom ), fans sometimes say "Nightmare Moon: Turns good. Discord: Turns to stone. Queen Chrysalis: Banished. King Sombra: ****ING DEAD!" Shipping In most fan fiction, he is shipped with Celestia, Luna, Queen Chrysalis, and in some cases Twilight Sparkle, as seen in stories such as Kiss of the Dark and His Black Heart's Inquiry. Another popular shipping is with Trixie as several foals are based of of this paring, examples include Eclipse by Faith-Wolff and Starfall by Kilala97 Gallery See also * Category:Official characters